Case Study: Accent Hotel Group

The Accent Hotel Group (AHG) is a family owned business with a chain of 7
hotels: four in two major capital cities (4 star) and three at an international
airport (two 3 star and one 4 star). The hotels in the Group offer 800
bedrooms to residents and AHG employs 800 staff, approximately 110 -114 in
each hotel. The Group is headed by the founder, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Daniel Rycaart and the Board consists of 8 directors:

Administration and Corporate Services (includes IT)

Finance

Hospitality and Hotel Services

Human Resources

Legal Services (Company Secretary)

Operations and Conferences

Risk Management

Sales and Marketing

(For organisation charts, see Appendix 1 & 2)

Each hotel is managed by a General Manager and is run as a semi-

autonomous profit centre/strategic business unit. The Hotels are supported
by in-house and outsourced services, including maintenance, entertainment,
etc.

Daniel’s vision for the Group is ‘a commitment to excellence and the provision
of a quality experience for all guests’. Residents are offered a number of high
class facilities including:

Conference suites for day delegates and function rooms for

wedding receptions and parties

Evening entertainment in the bar

Indoor heated swimming pool

Leisure centre (gym, sauna, spas, etc for residents and members)

Outdoor terrace

Two bars (one of which offers 24 hour bar meals)

Two restaurants with top chefs (a la carte and self-service buffet
style)

Daniel’s vision and strategy extends to achieving 100% occupancy all year
round. This has been achieved by a 40% increase in gross profits in the last
4 years. The Group’s ‘commitment to excellence’ has been underpinned by a
number of strategic initiatives. These are outlined below.

1. Culture
The Group’s culture has ‘changed’ with the introduction of a new
management philosophy which sees everyone’s contribution (not just
those managing the hotels) as key to its success. This more ‘inclusive’
culture gave all staff an opportunity to input into the Group’s critical
success factors and key performance indicators (KPIs). These include:

1

Commitment to excellence via quality, standards of performance
and customer service

Terms and conditions of employment

Outsourcing and in-house services

Health, safety and hygiene

Occupancy

Sales and marketing

Each General Manager (along with department heads) was then

responsible for ensuring that KPIs were written into their business and
operational plans and objectives were set and met accordingly. All staff
were consulted about the resultant plans and received their own personal
copy. In this way, all staff felt involved in the day-to-day running of the
hotel and therefore shared a sense of commitment to, and ownership of,
the achievement of KPIs and objectives.

2. Learning and Development

The Group’s commitment to being a ‘learning organisation’ and
maintaining the status of an ‘Investor in People’ included the setting up of
a new Learning and Development Unit. The Unit, headed by a Learning
and Development Manager, reported directly to the Group Human
Resource Manager. One of her first assignments was to develop each
manager and department head to become coaches and mentors to their
staff. She was also tasked with the responsibility of ensuring learning and
development needs were directly linked with business objectives and
developing web-based materials for mangers and staff, which would mean
the implementation of a state-of-the-art corporate wide intranet to replace
the current one. The new intranet will also support the knowledge and
information management system and improve decision making throughout
the Group. It will also provide up-to-date market intelligence data for key
decision makers.

3. Performance Management

Central to the new management philosophy is the implementation of a new

performance management system. A report, commissioned by Daniel,
identified a number of inconsistencies with the outdated performance
appraisal system, including the fact that reviews weren’t taking place at
regular intervals, individual objectives weren’t linked to strategic, business
and operational plans and some employees (including waiters, porters,
chamber personnel and seasonal and casual staff) were not as adept at
identifying their own learning and development needs. The Director of
Administration and Corporate Services and the Director of Human
Resources were asked to work together to ensure appropriate systems
were in place to support the new strategy.

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4. Commitment to Excellence

Daniel’s vision ‘commitment to excellence’ is the flagship behind the

Group’s success. However, with the new culture of ‘team work’ and
‘openness’, Daniel is striving to improve on the already successful ‘quality
culture’. This includes a commitment to ‘continuous improvement’. All
managers were asked to identify ways in which service quality could be
improved (including front of house) and how these improvements could be
cascaded down to end users. All staff were also encouraged to suggest
ways in which their performance could be improved and how this could be
linked to the performance management system and the identification of
learning and development needs.

5. Standard Operating Procedures

In January 2005, a new set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
were introduced to support the new culture, specific operational activities
and good planning and control within the Group. The SOPs developed
included:

administrative management

corporate governance

customer satisfaction

knowledge management

outsourcing

The Director of Administration and Corporate Services has overall

responsibility for ensuring that the SOPs make the Group’s operations
more cohesive, efficient and productive, that they integrate operations
across the Group and that they remain relevant and useful to all staff.

New Hotel Development

In a recent press conference to promote the commencement of the building of
a new hotel, Daniel said “these are exciting times for the Accent Group. The
hotel industry is changing rapidly and Accent is well positioned to benefit from
the changes. We have achieved substantial growth and the construction of a
new, luxury 5 star hotel is testament to that growth. At Accent, our
commitment to excellence means that we are constantly looking for ways to
delight our residents and guests and bring them a total quality experience.
The look and feel of Accent is directly influenced by the world’s foremost
innovations in technology, design, service, culinary expertise and comfort.
The twenty-first century customer wants it all: style, sophistication, reliability
and above all, our commitment to excellence in the service we provide to
them. The Accent Group will continue to deliver superior value and service to
our current and future residents and guests.”

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 Appendix 1

Accent Hotel Group

Board of Directors & Directorate Staff

Daniel Rycaart
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Amanda Remington
Personal Assistant

Jade Walmington
Lynn Edmonton Ann Shields Sean Weatherly
Director Matt Healey John Faulds Wood Sam Kendon Smith Elena Symantec
Director Director Director
Administration Director Director Director Director
Hospitality & Legal Services & Operations &
& Corporate Services Finance Human Resources Risk Management Sales & Marketing
Hotel Services Company Secretary Conferences
Includes IT

Group Hospitality &

Group Administration Group Finance Group Human Group Legal Services Group Operations & Group Risk Group Sales &
Hotel Services
Manager Manager Resources Manager Manager Conferences Manager Management Manager Marketing Manager
Manager

Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate Directorate

Staff Staff Staff Staff Staff Staff Staff Staff

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 Appendix 2

Accent Hotel Group

Organisation Chart 2

Daniel Rycaart
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Hotel 1 Hotel 2 Hotel 3 Hotel 4 Hotel 5 Hotel 6 Hotel 7

General Manager General Manager General Manager General Manager General Manager General Manager General Manager

Assistant Manager Assistant Manager Assistant Manager Assistant Manager Assistant Manager Assistant Manager Assistant Manager

Hotel Staff Hotel Staff Hotel Staff Hotel Staff Hotel Staff Hotel Staff Hotel Staff